The rolling Brighton thread

Really I have started this thread to tell people about the new pub quiz in aid of the Peace and Environment Centre, at the Robin Hood off Norfolk Square. First one tomorrow, about 7.30. I'll be there, join me!

Don't think I can make the quiz :(

Quiz sounds good, I'll come next week Archel! But I'm playing the blues - well, a couple of songs - at the Bath Arms tomorrow though, gotta learn some words. Should be easy though right?

Well, the first line of the blues, is always sung a second time.
I said, the first line of the blues...

It will be every three weeks I think.

I'm not going to B&S I don't think - my nights out at the moment stretch to approx. £1...

Mah woman left me, drink a bottle of gin
Mah woman left me, drink a bottle of gin
Mah woman left me, drink a bottle of gin
If Ah find her, I gonna kick her teeth right in

ad infinitum and come up with clever rhymes for what you will do to her based on what you've been drinking.

I can't remember any of the questions now! Oh yes, there was a 'real names' round in which we got George Orwell, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Bono and a couple of others but couldn't remember Adam Ant, Prince or David Bowie. Got this wrong too: 'who has been credited as either singer or writer on over 100 UK chart hits?' Amazing we came second really.

(knocks over pint)

(gets thrown out)

I think the next one will be 2 Jan now?

The blues went well enough thanks. I need more confidence in my delivery though. And yeah, thanks Kate. My song turned out along these lines:

Sometimes I think my babe's too good to die
Sometimes I think my babe's too good to die
Sometimes I think my babe's too good to die
Sometimes I think she should be buried alive

So, I am moving back to Preston Circus tomorrow - Rosehill FAP to celebrate at some point in the next week?

So, are you closer to The Duke of Yorks than us? We're about 30 seconds (Be4conf1eld R0ad).

Haven't been to The Rosehill in ages, what's it like at the moment?

The Rosehill seems to occasionally fill with scary rugby types but mostly it's pretty quiet, good jukebox, good pint of Harveys.

Let me know when the drinks are and I should be abke to pop along.

Also, I need restaurant recommendations. I hardly ever go out to eat these days so I'm a bit out of touch, but M just won £80 on his work lottery syndicate so fine dining is back on the agenda for one night only! Any thoughts?

Fancy a pint? or maybe archel can fine wine and dine me....... :-D

Terre a Terre is always good, and vegetarian. We had a great 3 course meal for £80 on our anniversary last month.

My parents are coming down and treating us to a dinner at The Gingerman at Drakes this Sunday - Madeline and I went to their original restaurant (on Norfolk Place) which was very good - I'll let you know what it's like.

Due South can be good, but has slow service and is inconsistant, Paston Place is widely reckoned to be the best, but you'll need another £40 at least for that. Sevendials is similair to Due South.

If you fancy a cheaper night out, The Argus is running a 'Dine For £10' per person campaign from This Friday. Book early (i.e. this Firday) and you'll be able to have a couple of meals out for £80 including wine and tips! The best ones on the offer are Sevendials and Due South, but you can also go to The Saint, Vanilla, La Marinade, Oki Nami and several others.

You will have to suffer the shame of buying a few copies of The Argus to collect the tokens, but at least you'll be keeping me in a job!

Ken, there is bowling at the Marina. You can get there on the Volks Railway too - cor!

Regarding Sunday - it's my night in while the missus is out, I'm afraid.

I am off on Friday too! (After a supervisor meeting in the morning.) I could come bowling maybe. I hate the Marina but if there's a few of us I'd be prepared to make the sacrifice... definitely drinks pre-gig anyway (I'm not going to it).

also check your emails!

Also, anyone around on the 25th?

It's where a cinema called 'The Vogue' used to be, and cars, er, gyrate around it now.

Your night sounds good, but it would be better if it was in town!

I gave the Turkish shop some custom the other day, but there's not enough fresh produce to persuade me to go there more often. I really want something like the Taj Mahal over this side of town.

ahh might well move into town when i decide where would be accomdating and have little to no financial risk, i had a enough of trying to play music to please people with financial implications,

now i'd like to play music to please people me included with minimal risk

any ideas...

I can't think of anywhere other than the obvious ones for cheap hire: Prince Albert, Miss Fitzherberts?

though seem to have missed miss fitzherberts, am i missing out on somewhere decent?

The new Turkish store looked good, we also went into Expressa video or whatever it's called where you get your film out of a machine and it's like 99p for 6 hours. Lewes Road is teh future! (Maybe.)

Fitzherberts is good, I don't know if they hire out for DJ nights though? The Freebutt? Fringe Bar?

And I miss the Vogue Gyratory. always found that sign a tiny little bit suggestive when i would see it while cycling down bear road. I miss the bear.

doing another one, so another shameless plug

on an aside anyone gonna be watching the world cup in london by sea?

Also must FAP soon before summer is over. (Fancy a pint of orange juice in my case but heigh ho.)

in what can only be seen as shameless spamming for a mate i hearby invite you to the below

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j90/kelvinshuffle/11thnovcopy.jpg

you should come

(i have been led to believe if you click on the image it gets bigger)

still want to move to town though but far to lazy to get out and ask round, though today is my last day commuting to london before a new job in shoreham so might finally pull my finger out

In the spirit of advertising casual ILX-or sponsored events...... Here's mine:

ihttp://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7938/934/1600/belcantothesecond.jpg

http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/7938/934/1600/belcantothesecond.jpg

NB. last minute but Kate and I shall be fapping/eating at The George tonight from 6 if anyone fancies it.

Brighton, your hipster mortgage boys are so cute. I look forward to drinking with you tonight!

I cannot stay late, as I've just been told I have to horrific Oracle programming at an early hour tomororw. Bah.

Someone's nicked Steve!

There's only his right foot left! And I know I said I hated it but it wasn't me guv honest.

Save it for the judge.

I don't think I realised it was Steve Ovett before reading that so I won't really miss it. Preston Park is pretty but not as nice as Queens Park if one was to rank Brighton's parks.

Preston Park is the only one I've been in. Tell me about Queens Park.

Where Preston Park is flat fowery and awash with bowling greens, Queens park has character. it's hilly - kinda like a smaller, tamer version of hampstead heath - with a big old pond and one disused bowling green which we call Islamabad and play crcket on.

So, I've just had a preliminary offer to do a Critical Theory MA at the University of Sussex. Provided it doesn't turn out to be an impossibly stringent conditional one, I will be moving to Brighton at the end of this summer. Me & the mister aren't exactly rolling in cash money, so are there any tips about areas we should be looking at moving to that are reasonably priced for renting? We don't really know anyone, so house sharing is probably not going to be an option.

Also, FAP?

Congratumalations! I loved Sussex and am seriously considering abandoning my journalism ambitions to return there to do an international law masters. The only university in English located entirely within a national heritage site. I <3 walking on the downs.

Queens Park would be my location recommendation. Being relatively far from the centre of town (and Hove), and near enough to Whitehawk, it's pretty reasonable as far as rent goes. It's easily within walking distance of anything you might want to walk to, near to my favourite park (see above post) and the beach. It is also whimsically close to an awesome Krazy Golf Course but that may be less of a selling point for you. (FAGOKG?)

Queens Park is also really close to the gay hub of Kemptown and some decent enough pubs.

Oh and St George's church is also pretty local (seen some great gigs there).

Anything else I can help you with?

Oh, that sounds good. I had a look at some maps online and it doesn't look too far away from anywhere, so if it's cheap enough then that would be ideal. Krazy Golf is not the highest priority, but it can be fun indeed.

In general, what's Brighton like to live in? Nottingham has a fairly close (but not too cliquey) DIY music scene, and I'd like to maybe find some people to make music with... I'm expecting to not have much money for going out, but gigs will always be important.

From my perspective Brighton's amazing to live in. I lived there for four years on very little cash and was never bored. (I actually refuse to admit that i've left and am pretty much there every weekend anyway).

It has an amazing live music scene with loads of great little venues like The Prince Albert, the Freebutt (sadly not as good as it used to be having been taken over by some vile company from Southampton), Audio (bit claustrophobic but some decent gigs there), The Hope, The Engine Rooms and various others. Concorde2 is an uhmazin' 600 capacity venue for bigger acts while The Dome caters to mainstream fare and the Brighton Centre to collossuses of the Kanye calibre.

As far as making your own music you will probably find more offers and opportunities there than you can handle. Here is the relevant Gumtree just to start you off. I'm not creative in the slightest but Brighton likes to think of itself as a hive of creativity, which is mostly nice but it does have more than its fair share of pretentious hipsters/scenesters. You just have learn to tune the fuckers out and appreciate the goodness.

Check out this record label run by a very good friend of mine. They work with a lot of really great burgeoning acts and put on some of the most interesting shows in Brighton.

I could go on - and will happily do so if you wanna email me nick dot uptoeleven at gmail dot com - but might leave it there for now.

Have mailed you, thanks. Bumping in case any otber Brightonians have anything to add.

Does that really say 'otber'? Um, I meant 'other'.

*bump*

Nobody else has any thoughts or advice about this?

Have lived in Brighton for approximately 3 weeks now and, unemployment aside, am loving it to bits. All my jobhunting has been done via free wi-fi in relatively nice pubs (special kudos to the rather lovely Foundry) and the gig venues are pretty decent, although the Freebutt's pillar is a bit odd (i.e. right in front of the stage), but as a tally it permits me to stand up front without pissing anyone off. The Hope is a weird one - a bit towny downstairs, but some excellent indiepop-type gigs in the very nice venue upstairs.

Record shop wise, Edgeworld is stunning for the slightly more avant/obscure side, where Resident and Rounder cover the main gamut of stuff quite well, with Borderline covering your discerning 60s/70s/kraut/folk/tropicalia/jazz angle pretty nicely. And the Wax Factor place on Trafalgar Street is pretty impressive in the amount of second hand vinyl it has, although it's almost too much to wade through.

In other words, loving it!

Are there still any good record shops open in Brighton? I thought I had read that some stuff has closed but can't remember the specifics...

Resident Records on Kensington Gardens is great for new release stuff, your P4k and more out there stuff.

Borderline Records on Gardner Street near the Komedia is superb for reissues, 60s, 70s, Krautrock, folk, jazz etc.

Across The Tracks on Sydney Street and Wax Factor on Trafalgar Street/Tidy Street are good, big second-hand shops with varied stock worth spending some time with.

A bit further out, the Monkey Music Emporium is off London Road (on Baker Street), is full of rarer/expensive stuff from all eras, it has an outstanding avant-garde/experimental section, if you want stuff on Incus or half The Residents back catalogue this is your place.

Rarekind on Trafalgar Street has more hip-hop/beats friendly stuff, is good pricewise. One Stop Records is a newish place above Wolf & Gypsy Clothing on Sydney Street, this has some good stuff - especially worth looking through the 7"s in the corner, although few bargains are to be had here, there is a lot of good stuff.

In short. YES! Although the loss of Rounder leaves a massive hole, and the loss of Edgeworld (subsequently Endless) of Kensington Gardens means the friendliest of the shops to hang out in has now gone :(